Okay, sorry. Technical difficulties on that side, um, which, uh, so I appreciate everybody
kind of coming back. Um, let's see if we can get this right now. Um, again, I was just
saying, you know, uh, share with us your questions and Discord, we'd be happy to answer them. Um,
one of the things you're going to notice as well, too, is that we have, um, a forum, forum.althea.net,
um, that is really going to be a central hub for the community to interact. Um, whether
that's from the networking side, and you'll see some threads on, you know, the how to some
interconnection to docs.althea.net, um, where you can dive into building your own network,
um, you know, tinkering around, working on the hardware side of things, uh, and also on
the Althea L1, which is the name of the Althea blockchain, um, itself. Uh, and you'll see,
uh, some governance things happening on Althea, uh, even the testnet right now, which is
live. Um, if you, uh, go to Althea.zone, you'll see the kind of testnet front end that's, that's
being iterated on right now with, uh, some of the core group of validators and, um, community
members that are putting it through its paces, kicking the tires, getting things ready to,
to go to mainnet. Um, and then you'll see also some of that voting and governance around
the community voice on the initial parameters. And we do encourage everyone to share, um, their
thoughts on those initial set of parameters. Uh, the Althea blockchain is a proof of state
Cosmos SDK, uh, chain with a, uh, fork of an ether mints or EVM module. So folks can develop,
yeah, you know, ERC 20 smart contracts and applications around the physical infrastructure,
um, as, uh, and, and those can be ERC 20 tokens and contracts. Um, but the, the, the governance
of the chain itself is managed by a decentralized group of validators and, uh, the, the token
holders who can vote on parameters, uh, around the operation. So definitely encourage folks to
check out the forum that Althea.net participate, share your thoughts on, um, the parameters of
the chain operation, um, and, and, you know, how, uh, uh, how, how you all think that the,
that that should, um, evolve as well as, you know, get, get started kind of hacking and tinkering
around with the hardware too, uh, from there. So I'd like to introduce, uh, co-host, uh, John to
the, uh, who, who's just joining the Hawk networks team. And for those that don't know,
Hawk networks is, um, the company that incubated the Althea idea, um, and, uh, built the first
price aware routing protocol and the machine to machine billing that makes everything work.
So John, if you want to jump in, um, and introduce yourself, that'd be great.
Hi, thanks. Uh, thanks for the intro. Yeah. Nice to meet you all. Very excited to be here.
I, uh, I'm joining as a marketer to the team and, uh, you know, looking to get the show on
the road for, uh, on the road to, to the main net here. Um, and I believe I have a couple
questions from, from discord coming up. So, uh, Deb, if you wouldn't mind answering
some of these. Um, the first question I have is, uh, what can the community look forward to
in the coming weeks? I'm sorry, I didn't catch that. It could be that maybe we,
um, that you need an Althea network. Um, so what, what do you said that what can the
community look forward to in the coming weeks? Oh, very cool. Okay. So we kind of touched on that
a little bit. Um, and for those of us that have been following along the journey,
it's been six years of really building out the machine to machine payment protocol
and, uh, routing that has been transformative across now 13 us states and in about four
different countries, uh, in, in telecommunication and we're at this point of scaling. Um,
and, and at this point of inflection where, uh, you know, we've been building on the
nosis chain and really taking it to kind of as far as it can go. So the launch of the Althea
L1 blockchain is a, is a real milestone for the Althea, uh, you know, protocol and platform to
now become an ecosystem of different, um, you know, of different participants. We have folks that are
wanting to build, um, like in the IFI hackathon, we saw a company called, or a product called
Electra. Uh, Electra wants to be sort of the Uber for EV chargers, right? So building in the Althea
EVM, um, their own kind of ecosystem. We, we've been hearing about some of these kinds of different
point systems around, uh, tele, tele, uh, telecoms and things like that who want to have smart
contracts and, uh, the interact with the Althea protocol or develop their own kind of tokens
there. So what's very exciting is that we now have this platform, um, that will also include,
and this is kind of the first, I think the first time we've been really talking about this publicly.
So y'all are having a little bit of alpha here on the, and this is why you come to the community
call, right? Is something we call in the D pin decks. So the D pin decks, um, allows for those
tokens like the Electra, like the telecom, um, types of, uh, uh, of tokens and existing D pin
projects to come into have, um, to be a part of the Althea decks and then swap out to stable
coins and back out to Fiat or from Fiat into the ecosystem that way in a way that's very seamless
for the end user. And, and I think this is a real big unlock and it's really exciting, um,
in terms of bridging the digital world. And of course, folks that are already using utilities,
telecom cars, all these kinds of things that are part of the D pin infrastructure. Um,
so super exciting. You'll see that, um, uh, technology start to evolve on the Althea
blockchain itself, the D pin decks. Um, and then you'll also see, of course, the launch
of liquid infrastructure. Um, big shout out to the code for Reena, um, platform and team that
does crowdsource auditing that audited the liquid infrastructure platform. Um, and for those that
don't know, liquid infrastructure is a tokenized asset, um, that allows for different kinds of
fractionalized funding of the infrastructure that then becomes part of the machine to machine
payments and part of the Althea ecosystem. So really what we're going to see in the next
couple of weeks is the fruition of the Althea scaling and the inflection point that we are
now out in this Althea journey. So pretty exciting. And we welcome everyone to like,
you know, you know, connecting, um, get involved in the discord or in the forum and, and really
just sort of let your ecosystem voices be heard. Oh, we should talk about chapters too, but all
that we'll talk about chapters a little later. Um, so yes, the next few weeks, it's going to be
exciting. Yeah, there's a lot, a lot to get through. Um, and chapters is a, is a really
exciting part of this. Um, I think we can get to that in a second. Um, someone asked on, on,
on discord, um, if there's are any video tutorials to set up your own node.
Yeah. And so this is an interesting question because sometimes what people mean by node
can be very different. Um, in terms of like building the, uh, price aware routing protocol
and machine payments to be used in telecom, the way that, you know, kind of Hawk networks and
a few others, uh, like wave seven and in North Carolina, um, you'd have tree linked down in
California have like, if you wanted to build a telecom network, you would, you would want to
start at like docs at all theater at net. Um, that really gives a kind of guide for how, um,
how that's, uh, how, how to, how to put things together, how things work, you know, what's the
kind of mechanics of it. And then we have some great videos on YouTube where folks have done that
as well. Um, but it also can be a good idea to reach out to the, like the Hawk network support
team. Um, so Hawk networks.net, uh, Hawk, like the bird, which was a play on the ad Hawk networks,
which we thought was very clever. Um, but you can, you can go there and there'll be some team
members to really kind of help you through that journey. Um, if you're, if you're really thinking
about that, we talked to some great folks up in Vermont today. Um, you're looking to use that to,
you know, help solve some of their broadband pain points. Um, now, if you're talking about
a node, meaning being involved in the proof of stake blockchain, being a validator, um, that
you're going to find all of that on the get hub. So that's why we started talking about earlier,
like the forum is a nice place to get started. You can really kind of land there
and then navigate to what parts of the Althea ecosystem you're, you're interested in.
That's excellent. There's a, there's a lot, a lot that can be done. It seems like,
Yeah. And I think that really does sort of lead into, um, and we don't have to jump into this
right now, but we've been kind of touching on this idea of chapters, um, because as Althea
is at this inflection point, um, you know, there's not a single point of community,
then it becomes how we empower and give agency to these local groups or chapters that then can, um,
organize and support their communities from a geographic locality as well as community support
different types of facets of the, um, uh, of the network. Uh, and I see that the broadband
Institute is, uh, is here, um, and has been very involved in the development of chapters. Um,
so if you, if you want to jump in and say a few words, feel free to raise your hand. We'll give
you the, we'll give you the mic here and you can talk about, you know, I think you,
you, uh, the broadband Institute has done a really good job of supporting, you know,
independent education and, um, the idea of a distributed group of ecosystem participants.
But it's okay if you're, you could also find them in Discord. They're quite active there too,
so feel free to interact with the community there as well. Um, so, uh, uh, other, other, uh,
questions we had in Discord. Oh, there we go. Um, let's, uh,
let's bring back the broadband network here to the stage.
Broadband Institute, um, if you want to share a little bit about yourself and, and, um,
I think some of the exciting work you're doing, we'd love to hear it. Hi. Can you hear me? We can.
Oh, okay. Great. Thanks for, um, uh, bringing, uh, me in. Uh, the easiest way to find us is on,
uh, an easy to remember URL, uh, called we can connect dot us. We can connect us.
And the, uh, URL implies what our mission is that, that together we can get ourselves connected.
And some of the links will take you, uh, to our, uh, main site where we have courses and groups.
And what I'm envisioning is trying to get, you know, especially since, uh, there were something
like 60, um, uh, entities that, uh, applied to be chapters and three localities are going to be
picked. What about, uh, the other 57, shouldn't we all have a place where we can talk to each other
and, uh, please, you know, contact me, go to weekend connect dot us. Uh, and I'm the only person who
reads the contact forms there. So contact me and I'd love to set up a meeting with people to show
you how we can utilize the platform that we've created. It's, it's based on, uh, what was
originally, uh, buddy press, which was the community part of WordPress in 2011. My wife and I were
developers one and two for occupy wall street, the website that registered 9,000 people into a
hundred working groups. And today we're using, um, buddy press, which is a, uh, um, a hard fork,
uh, uh, not, not buddy press, um, buddy boss, which is a hard fork of the free open source buddy press.
And we're using learn dashes, our learning management system. So, uh, it, it's a very established, uh,
LMS. Uh, so I've, I've spoken enough. So please, please contact me on our website.
Yeah. And I appreciate that a lot. And to your, to your earlier point, I just wanted to clarify,
you know, those, uh, that, uh, we're, we're, uh, working on the chapters kind of format.
And, um, you know, we, we do certainly want folks to be able to talk. There won't be just three sort
of chosen, but three to kind of help be part of the steering committee is more of a way to
kind of think about that. Um, and then, um, and then, uh, you know, we have a chapters in the discord
and I know that we're, you know, kind of working on that in the forum as well. So that'll certainly
evolve and we want that to evolve from the, you know, the, the, the will of the community too.
And I don't know if, if John, you want to kind of share a little bit about what's coming up in
the chapters, uh, um, roadmap. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So, uh, for anyone in the chat here that's
interested in joining the chapters, um, can go into our discord. Uh, there's a chapters channel there.
Uh, and if you want to go in and start chatting and organizing yourself, uh, with your community,
uh, you can do so there. Um, as a broader group, we're going to be setting up chapter community
calls, uh, for later next week, we're going to send invites to folks who signed up for the pilot
program. Uh, we will also share a link to that on the discord. Um, then at the, on this call,
we plan to announce the three pilot chapters and discuss next day, sorry, next steps for getting
organized. So yeah, I appreciate that. I mean, and John was a real integral part of, uh, being,
us being able to, um, logistically move things forward and keep that organized and support
y'all. Um, in terms of also running a note, I did also want to let you folks know that we have a,
there's a, um, like a pre pre-installed, um, you know, kind of hardware, um, over there at shop.althea.net.
It's important to realize that Althea is hardware agnostic, um, meaning that the routing and billing
protocol can work across fiber, fixed wireless, LTE 5G, and a variety of different mediums.
It's pretty great. Um, which is also why we think we're, we're super helpful. You know,
when we think about the deep end docs, it really just allows for those more segmented types of,
uh, like incentive type programs to then come and be part of the, you know, larger kind of,
uh, series of tubes that the, the internet or telecom is, or, or physical infrastructure in
general is. Um, but also that means even though we do still have like pre pre hard, you know,
pre flash hardware, if you're into hacking and want to get involved with that side of it,
you can find all of our, uh, the firmware available, um, on the GitHub and, you know,
take that and, and, um, you know, develop that or, or to, um, deploy that as you see fit.
Yeah, that's great. Um, I think that that's all the questions that I've seen on discord and
Twitter for this call. Um, if there's anyone in the audience that wants to come up and ask,
uh, and ask Deborah or I a question, um, or even brought about Institute, uh,
feel free to raise your hand and we can, uh, we can invite you on stage here.
Um, also too, if, if, uh, uh, I know that some, there's some Althea supporters that's,
that will be at token 2049 in Dubai. And so if there's anyone joining that,
uh, feel free to, you know, jump in the discord and we can make sure y'all connect in person,
get some merch. Uh, also we, um, you'll see us launching in a few new states. One of them is,
uh, Arizona, um, some exciting work we're having that's happening over there in fiber to the unit
in, um, apartments, as well as, um, really exciting radio deployments, uh, kind of east of Arizona.
So if you're in Arizona and want to plug in also again, reach out to us. One of the things that
we're also excited about hopefully coming to fruition over the next, you know, probably a couple
of months is that this map, right? This has been one thing that folks have asked us for,
for a really long time. How do we find, you know, where you're at right now? How do we connect
with those people and kind of to your point, broadband Institute, that's one of the things
how do, how do we connect with other people in the ecosystem? And I think we've envisioned this
long as kind of a map. Um, so, uh, if there's folks that, you know, say, Hey, you know,
I would really love to work on that. That's a big part of what I do, you know, feel free to reach
out to us as well. I think that's, um, that's going to be an exciting part of the ecosystem
growth. Um, so yeah, and also if you are in Washington, Oregon, um, uh, Georgia or Texas
or Arizona, the Hawk Network team does also have some positions for, uh, for work there too. So if
you know of anybody in that area that wants to get involved, um, we'd love to, we'd love to talk
to you too, from the Hawk networks.net team. All right. Any, uh, any other questions that we
might have, um, said you'll, you know, we'll see some, some documentation really talking about
the, uh, the Althea blockchain and the, uh, D pin upcoming D pin decks. Um, some of the
mechanics of how it works, how to get involved with that kind of over the next, uh, coming
weeks. So it should be pretty busy. Please do stay in touch on, um, on discord, um, where we'll also,
also usually tease a few pictures of what's happening on the ground. We saw some pictures
of folks literally shovel in the door, building out some of the first liquid infrastructure
projects, um, in the Atlanta area here recently as well. Yeah, great, great pictures in the discord
for sure. Worth checking out. Um, also like if you have your favorite D pin projects that you'd love
to see come to the D pin decks, we'd love to talk to you about that as well. Um, or if you, um, well,
you'll also, one of the other things we're sort of working on as well, um, that will, you know,
that's under, you know, construction right now is, is a, is a incubator or a support program for
folks that are building on the Althea blockchain, um, which you'll see developing as well.
Okay, everybody. Well, it's been super fun. Um, we'll, we'll have another community call this time
next week. Um, and, uh, feel free to jump those questions in the discord. We can ask for them in
the meantime or answer them, um, over the call, um, as well. And, uh, if you're in one of those
states, please come find us. We'd love to, love to talk with you in person.
And I just posted a link into, uh, the welcome to the chapters.
Awesome. Thanks so much. Yeah. Feel free to get in, in touch with this, uh, with broadband
institute. They've been doing so good work in the space and I think, you know, it's,
it's every, uh, every hand at the plow. And, you know, we were able to do, um,
and I'm going to leave you with this kind of antidote, which I've, I've shared before,
but I think it's so powerful. I mean, I got into blockchain very early on, um, doing GPU mining
and Bitcoin and Ethereum. And, um, but even kind of in around that same time, I, I got really
excited about a project called folding at home. And, um, this was where, you know, scientists
that needed a full protein for scientific research needed access to a supercomputer didn't have it.
What do they do? So what they did is they built a distributed, uh, kind of compute program, right?
That, uh, that basically everybody could run as volunteers at home, fold the proteins, and then
collectively you could do scientific research. And it was this sort of collective, the collect,
the power of everyone, um, contributing resources, um, owning different parts of it, you know,
running different parts of this program, um, that they were able to solve this very challenging
problem, uh, problem, which is what, how I feel like we are able to, um, you know, disrupt the,
the sort of legacy systems that are leaving so many people behind that are not solving
problems that are so expensive and clunky, um, you know, collectively through distributed
ownership, we can create more resilient systems. And, you know, I have the unique privilege of
seeing it every day of, you know, um, going to these apartments where the, you know, connectivity
is bad or go into these rural areas or, um, these kinds of things where people can now
be part of those systems, have flexible payment methods. And, and to see that impact is, is
really powerful. So we're excited, um, about the future and making that more accessible to more
people. Um, and, and, and this really kind of exciting inflection point. So thanks all
for being part of the journey and we look forward to, um, to building together with y'all.